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The unwritten story of America’s 250th: What it means to be an American

I once read a story about the greatest danger any civilization can face. It wasn't an army. It wasn't a king. It was a people who forgot why they started. That is the danger America stands closest to on her 250th birthday. We do not turn 250 because we won wars. We turn 250 because fifty-six men in a stifling Philadelphia room signed a resolution of paper that, in the eyes of the British Crown, was a death warrant. They closed it with one of the most dangerous sentences ever written by human hands: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine ...

The World Cup has always welcomed the world. Not this time.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has begun on American soil, the first time the United States has hosted the tournament in 32 years. In exchange for the privilege of hosting the Cup, and the enormous revenue it generates, a host nation is generally expected to welcome visitors for the games. Previous ...

Pete Hegseth’s vaccine policy backfired

An influenza outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas has sickened almost 160 people in the past few weeks and might have even killed one person going through basic training. If it wasn’t already clear why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to eliminate the military’s universal flu vaccine mandate was an exceptionally bad idea, it should be now. Hegseth announced the policy change in April, and since then, fewer than half of Air Force trainees have opted to get the shot. The vaccine does not provide perfect protection, but it reduces infections, lessens the severity for ...

Some thoughts on the data center moratorium proposal

I spent years as the Director of Marshall County Development. Part of that work involved sitting across the table from industrial site selectors — companies actively looking for places to put significant capital investment. Some of those conversations were about data centers. Marshalltown kept coming up as a candidate. And it kept getting passed over. Not because of our land. Not because of our location. Because data centers run on electricity — massive amounts of it — and Alliant Energy, our local utility, did not offer a rate that made Marshalltown cost-competitive for that ...

Becoming resilient

One of the things I have been focusing on early in my term as Mayor, is making Marshalltown more resilient. What exactly does that mean? Being a “resilient community” means that we are ready for what Mother Nature throws our way. We can argue about why disasters are happening more ...

Standing up for Iowa family farmers

As a fifth-generation Iowa farmer, I understand the importance of making decisions that sustain a farm for future generations. My family has been farming and raising pigs in central Iowa for more than 155 years. Today, my wife and I, and our son and daughter-in-law raise pigs, corn and beans ...